South Park’s Cold War Plot Subverted Viewer Expectations

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It would have been an obvious and uninspired move to make Mr. Garrison a war hawk in South Park season 25, so the choice to turn Mr. Mackey into the unhinged character was an inspired subversion of viewer expectations. South Park, like many satirical shows, has a disappointing tendency to reach for low-hanging fruit on occasion. Sometimes, this results in a weak episode, whereas at other times it has bigger consequences.

For example, South Park’s transphobic episode “Board Girls” (season 23, episode 7) undid all of the surprisingly thoughtful commentaries of “The Cissy” (season 18, episode 3) with a few thoughtless, tasteless, and embarrassingly outdated stereotypes. Where South Park’s treatment of Britney proved the show could be insightful about unexpected topics and tell compelling stories from fresh perspectives, lesser episodes leave the show feeling out of touch and cringe-inducing. This made it all the more unexpected and impressive whenSouth Park season 25 took an under-utilized supporting star of the series in a clever new direction.

Related: Did Rick & Morty Inspire South Park’s Serialization? Theory Explained

In the opening scene of “Back to the Cold War” (season 25, episode 4), the always-outrageous Mr. Garrison is talking to his class and exposes that he has no idea about the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Mackey then bursts in and corrals the kids into an absurd scare-mongering nuclear safety drill, becoming an unhinged Russophobe before the cold open is over. Much like The Simpsons successfully revisited a classic episode by rearranging the roles each character fulfilled, Mr. Mackey being the one to get caught up in McCarthyite paranoia was a clever twist that few South Park fans would